Footwear emitting a fragrance and a method for its fabrication

ABSTRACT

An article of footwear that automatically and continuously emits a fragrance and includes a fragrance-releasing substance impregnated into and absorbed by a part of the footwear such as by infusing the fragrance-releasing substance into a selected part of the footwear article.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10/926,127 filed on Aug. 26, 2004.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to footwear, and more particularly to a fragranced footwear and a method for its fabrication.

2. Description of the Prior Art

It has been recognized, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,221, that the use of a fragrance in connection with an article of footwear, such as a sandal or an athletic shoe, would enhance the commercial attractiveness of the footwear to the consumer. This prior art, however, requires the wearer to scratch or otherwise rupture a fragrance-enclosed object with embedded micro-capsules to release the fragrance.

Further, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,047,641, a disposable, replaceable insert may include a deodorizer with a time-release fragrance. This approach, however, requires the wearer to frequently replace the disposable insert.

Either of these prior art approaches would be cumbersome to use, especially for young children who constitute a major market for fragranced footwear. There thus remains a need for a fragranced footwear in which the fragrance emanates automatically, continuously, and directly from the article of footwear without the need to scratch, rupture, or otherwise manipulate the footwear, and where there is no need to use a fragrance-releasing insert, disposable or non-disposable, to release the fragrance from the footwear

BRIEF SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide an article of footwear that emanates a fragrance automatically and continuously.

It is another object of the invention to provide a fragranced footwear that does not require the use of scratching, rupturing, or any other type of manipulation to effect the release of fragrance from the footwear.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an article of footwear in which there is no need to use any insert, removable or non-removable, in order to release the fragrance.

It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a fragranced article of footwear of the type described which can be fabricated relatively inexpensively and easily.

To these ends, the footwear of the present invention includes a fragrance-releasing substance impregnated into the footwear such as by the infusion of the fragrant liquid oil, or by other means of direct application of the fragrance-releasing substance into a desired part of the footwear. The fragrance-releasing substance may be impregnated into the footwear by manual infusion or applied to the footwear as by the use of a brush or applicator, or by being sprayed on to a desired part of the footwear. Alternatively, the footwear may be directly immersed, either partially or wholly, into a vat that contains the fragrance-releasing substance, which is then absorbed into the immersed part of the footwear.

To the accomplishment of the above and such further objects as may hereinafter appear, the present invention relates to an article of footwear that emits a fragrance and a method for its fabrication, substantially as defined in the appended claims as considered in conjunction with the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof along with the accompanying drawing in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of an article of footwear including a fragrance-emitting substance in accordance with one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 1 a is a top view of an article of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawing, there is shown in FIGS. 1 and 1 a, there is shown an article of footwear, here shown as a sandal of the type commonly known as a flip-flop 10. Footwear 10 consists, as shown, of only two component parts, namely an upper part and a lower part. The upper part in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 1 a is a thong 16 and the lower part is a unit bottom 18. The wearer places his/her foot on part 12 of the unit bottom and part 14 of the unit bottom rests on the ground. The wearer places the juncture of the big toe and the adjacent toe at the front juncture of the thong 16 adjacent the upper thong portion 16 of the unit bottom.

In accordance with the present invention, a fragrance-releasing substance, oil or liquid is directly impregnated or incorporated into all or a selected part of footwear 10 and is thereafter automatically and continuously released from the footwear. The impregnation or incorporation of the fragrance-releasing substance into the footwear 10 may be achieved by manually infusing the fragrance-releasing liquid into a selected part of the footwear, or by applying the fragrance-releasing liquid by means of a brush or other type of manual applicator so that the fragrance-releasing substance is absorbed into the selected footwear part. The fragrance-releasing substance, oil or liquid may alternatively be incorporated into the footwear 10 by spraying the fragrance oil into the selected footwear part or by immersing the selected part of the footwear into a vat or other container containing the fragrance oil or liquid so that the fragrance-releasing oil or liquid is absorbed into the immersed footwear part.

Many different types of fragrances and fragrance oils are commercially available for a number of manufacturers for use in the present invention including, but not limited to, International Flavors and Fragrances, Givaudon, Alpine Aromatics, and Matsui Fragrances. One such fragrance-releasing oil that may be used in the practice of the invention is Polyiff 5031-HBG sold by International Flavors and Fragrances. The details of the impregnation of the particular fragrance-releasing substance into the footwear, in the manner described above, will depend upon the type of fragrance-releasing substance used and will be readily apparent to the worker of ordinary skill in the art.

It will be appreciated from the foregoing description of a presently preferred embodiment thereof that the present invention, as described hereinabove, provides a fragranced article of footwear and a method for its fabrication in which the fragrance automatically emanates from the footwear until it is depleted. Since the fragrance is not encapsulated or otherwise incorporated in a removable insert, as in the prior art, the wearer need not scratch, rupture or otherwise manipulate the footwear or replace a shoe insert to release the fragrance. It will be further appreciated that the embodiments of the invention hereinabove described are for illustrative purposes only, and that variations may be made therein, such as the use of the invention in other types of footwear such as in sneakers, athletic shoes or other types of sport footwear without necessarily departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

1. A method for fabricating an article of footwear including the steps of providing said footwear and impregnating into a selected part of said footwear a fragrance-releasing substance that is absorbed into said footwear part and is thereafter automatically and continuously released from the impregnated part of said footwear.
 2. The method of claim 1, in which said fragrance-releasing substance is a fragrance oil, and said impregnating step includes infusing said fragrance oil into a selected footwear part.
 3. The method of claim 1, in which said fragrance-releasing substance is a fragrance oil, said impregnating step including the step of applying said oil directly into a selected footwear part.
 4. The method of claim 3, in which said applying step includes using a brush or applicator or spraying said oil onto said footwear part.
 5. The method of claim 1, in which said impregnating step includes the step of immersing said selected footwear part into a container containing said fragrance-releasing substance.
 6. An article of footwear and a fragrance-releasing substance directly impregnated into and absorbed by at least a part of said footwear. 